2009 World Series: Is Grady Little In The House?

The 2009 World Series is tied 1-1, after the Yankees took advantage of an old nemesis, Pedro Martinez, 3-1.

The real story of the game was the pitching of AJ Burnett, who consistently was able to throw first pitch strikes. Anyone who has watched the Yankees this year will tell you, that the success of AJ Burnett is his control. If he is able to get his fastball over the plate, his curve becomes even more deadly. Such was the result last night.

Pedro Martinez threw one too many curve balls to Hideki Matsui, which was deposited in the right field seats of Yankee Stadium, giving the home team the lead for good. Also, the ghost of series past, Grady Little was channelled through Charlie Manuel, keeping Pedro in the game for one inning too long.

It looked like Pedro was done after 5, but he went back out there and probably cost the Phillies Game 2. Now it is on to Philadelphia, where big game pitcher, Andy Pettitte will try to give the Yankees Game 3, and a 2-1 series lead.

World Series Rants: Joe Buck

What does Joe Buck have against the Yankees and why was he allowed to go on and on about Pedro Martinez?

All throughout this post season, clearly Joe Buck has shown his penchant for talking against the Yankees. It was no more evident last night when for six innings he talked about Pedro Martinez. In each and every inning, there was another Pedro story, and I am quite sure that if you went and reviewed a recording of the game you would agree.

It became so bad that I had to turn off the sound to the game so as not to listen to him extolling the virtues of one Pedro Martinez. Giving credit where credit is due, Pedro pitched one heck of a game. He clearly is a savvy pitcher, who has lost speed off his fastball, but still managed to keep the Yankee hitters off balance. It was very evident in the at-bats of Alex Rodriquez.

However, that being said, why was it so obvious to my self and anyone else that I have talked to that Joe went on way too long, about the new Fox deity, Pedro Martinez.

He said little about AJ Burnett until the eighth inning when he finally stated that Burnett out pitched Pedro. It was clear from anyone watching the game that Burnett was out-pitching Pedro, and the Phillies hitters such as Ryan Howard were clearly over-matched by Burnett.

I have been watching Fox Baseball for way too long now. Joe Buck has continually gone out of his way to bring up past Yankee failures, including those of specific players like A-Rod. Is he the only play by play person available? He focused on the trouble that A-Rod has had in these two games, but talked very little about the lack of productivity of Ryan Howard who is hitting .222 with 4 strikeouts last night.